VIPs at ASTRON

After I did my lecture for ASTRON last November, general director Michael Garrett invited me and my Galaxy Zoo friends to come back one day for a special tour around the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy. It took some time arranging this international meet-up, but last weekend we went up there.

 

“Up there” meaning Dwingeloo, i.e. The middle of nowhere. In the best sense of that phrase. Especially in this beautiful autumn season. There’s forest all around the telescopes, which has this peaceful yet exciting and colourful touch. Geoff and Edd (from England) and Els (from Belgium) planned to arrive Thursday evening, so I travelled the four-hour-train-trip that evening too. After we had dinner in Beilen, a taxi – arranged by Mike – was there to bring us to the ASTRON guesthouse. This bungalow has rooms for astronomers who need to stay there for work and it also comes with a nice living room, a complete kitchen, food and drinks and of course a lovely view.
 

Els, Edd and I at the breakfast table. Yes, I’m trying to open Edd’s Apple. Picture by Geoff Roynon.
 

Marcel, Arie, Jan, David and Michel joined us the morning after, when a big (think school trip) bus with lunch packages – all arranged by Mike again – took us to the headquarters of the Westerbork Synthese Radio Telescope (WSRT). Tom Oosterloo, who also worked on the investigation of Hanny’s Voorwerp, showed us around there and took us to the LOFAR (Low Frequency ARay) fields. When you know what science they’re doing there, you’ll find it one of the most amazing muddy fields ever.
 

The lunch packages, the bus and the leaves outside. Picture by Hanny van Arkel.
 

While singing ‘We zijn er bijna’, the bus took us back from Exloo to Dwingeloo again, where we were expected in the same colloquium room I did my lecture, for an interesting talk from Rafaella Morganti about what ASTRON is currently doing. After that, Ronald Halfwerk gave us a tour of the labs, where we saw instruments in rooms which could easily be mistaken for torture facilities. Then, Paul Boven took us to the 25m telescope, which recently became a monument due to support from CAMRAS. We used the dish there and then to listen to a live pulsar!
 

Marcel, Tom, Geoff, David, Arie, Yours Truly, Michel, Edd, Els and Jan at the WSRT. Picture by the bus driver.
 

After this exciting program (some of the guys where even happier than kids in a candy shop), we walked back to the main building for drinks, where even more questions were answered with enthusiasm by Paul. And when heading back to the guesthouse, he even proposed we have a spontaneous, short backstage look at the impressive, time-machine looking computers (the JIVE correlator, which takes the signals from lots of radio telescopes to combine them, making them act like one big telescope). Even the astronomer among us thought this was way cool.
 

The LOFAR field, with ”Do It Yourself” antennae. Picture by Hanny van Arkel.
 

Meanwhile, it was dark outside and we still had some time before dinner. So Jan hadn’t brought his equipment to combine radio and optical astronomy together for nothing. We looked at a close up of our moon and at Jupiter with four of his moons, making me realise how fast the Earth rotates. After this starter, we had a lovely dinner in Dwingeloo, where Michel taped his last interviews (he has been filming this whole day for his students) and where we decided we had a wonderful day as VIPs, before some had to head home.
 

We hope Mike will be surprised when he finds this ”Zoo-stuff-thank-you” present in his office. Picture by Hanny van Arkel.
 

I stayed another night at ASTRON with the foreigners, before I took Edd home with me for a nice weekend of films and wine and blankets on the sofa. Thank you Galaxy Zooites for joining the party and thank you Mike and all the inspiring people at ASTRON for making us feel so welcome! It’s a great place to be ambassador for.
 

One last group picture, in front of the 25 meter Dwingeloo telescope. Behind the camera with a yellow hat was Paul Boven.